A social media specialist

Visibrain as a Tool for Cyber Security and Intelligence

Visibrain is a powerful media monitoring tool which has access to the Twitter Firehose which means it has complete access to tweets and is not limited in the amount that can be retrieved unlike the Search and Stream APIs. See more about Twitter APIs here which explains why the difference matters.

The problem often faced by those in the security industry is monitoring social media, online press and blogs in a high risk fast moving environment without being overwhelmed by huge quantities of data.

As Twitter is a news sharing and dissemination platform via Twitter using Visibrain it is possible to monitor a number of social media platforms such as Facebook, and YouTube among others as these are often parsed through Twitter. For example, using data derived from Twitter I was able to identify a blogger who was tweeting and blogging pro raw-milk material which contradicted the advice provided by the Foods Standards Agency.

Figure to show an example alert system

Visibrain would allow an organisation to monitor social media for queries specified by an end user, and if these are triggered an almost instant notification would be delivered. For example, if a bank wanted to monitor mentions of a hacking group and the bank using Visibrain this would be possible.

Additionally, if a local or national authority wanted to monitor mentions of a region or city for keywords such as ‘name of city’ + ‘riots’, or any other threat, Visibrain would sent out an alert almost immediately. Major news stories are often reported on Twitter by citizens and/or journalists before reaching the mainstream media.

Moreover, for those wanting reports produced and delivered almost instantly displaying tweet content, actors, URLS, and so forth, it is possible to receive these alerts via email to almost any location in the world. Below is a screenshot displaying how simple it is to create a report, and the wide range of metrics it is possible to monitor.

Setting up a case report

Here is an example of a client who wishes to receive updates on the Chilcot report, especially alerts when the expressions i.e., tweet content begins to mention Tony Blair, when they are away from their desk:

Designed with the cyber security and intelligence services in mind, Visibrain is a robust service with a range of clients such as:

I’d also recommend checking out some of my previous articles on Visibrain, here, here, and here. Interested in finding out more? Or have a specific question, please don’t hesitate to get in touch (@was3210).